Zarkon and Kolivan, eh? Do you think Zarkon remembers anything of him, or has his mind become so lost so to speak that he remembers close to nothing?
When I think about the current Zarkon (S1-S2), I definitely think he’s deteriorated to just about the worst he could be. His focus is on destroying the last Alteans, removing the new paladins and most importantly, getting the Black Lion back again. I really don’t think he has the capacity to see beyond stopping at nothing to attain those goals.
I’ve read some posts about how Zarkon felt like a really weak villain, a two-dimensional type of character. I actually see where folks are coming from. His focus is narrowed down so sharply that he has no room for anything he deems weak, his strategy for attacking is to just chase, trap and hit with everything. Even Commanders Sendak and Prorok showed better tactical sense when they were trying to capture Voltron. And yet Zarkon was willing to destroy others of his kind who showed signs of thinking without his direction or retreating to save lives. For a guy who saw his home planet get destroyed, he sure is liberal with turning his remaining army into canon fodder. It screams broken mind to me.
That being said, I think there is very little that he remembers of better times. That includes his mate, his customs, his traditions and everything he loved. I think there are those flashes, like that sense of seeing or hearing or smelling something familiar in the peripheral, but the minute he goes to focus on it, it’s gone. He’s grasping at smoke spirals, no clear pictures, no good memories. It’s incredibly sad to consider and maybe the only place he can ever find those parts of himself is within the bond with Black that has been severed. It’s clear he still has something with her, so maybe it’s not lost, but it is certainly far beyond his reach.